1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerating apparatus which can be advantageously used in an air conditioning device for an automobile. The present invention is also related to a modulator used in the refrigerating apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known in the prior art is a refrigerating device provided with a condenser and a receiver arranged downstream of the condenser. The top end of the receiver is provided with an inlet for introducing therein a condensed coolant from the condenser, and the coolant is stored in a space inside the receiver. In this case, a liquid phase is created below in the space at the liquid-gas interface, and the obtained liquid coolant is fed to a pressure-reducing means for the refrigerating apparatus.
This prior art suffers from a drawback in that all of the amount of coolant for recirculation in a refrigerating cycle must be introduced into a receiver, and a result, in this prior art, an introduction or removal of a large amount of coolant must continuously occur, and thus the dimensions of the receiver are inevitably greatly increased.
Another prior art refrigerator is provided with a condenser constituted by an upper condenser part and a lower super cooling part, and a receiver is arranged between the condenser part and the super cooling part. The coolant condensed at the condenser part is temporarily stored in the receiver, for a gas-to-liquid separation therein, and only the liquid coolant separated in the receiver is returned to the condenser at the super cooling part thereof.
This improved prior art also has a construction such that all of the amount of the coolant recirculated during the refrigerating cycle is introduced from the condenser part into the receiver, and all of the amount of liquid coolant is removed to the super cooling portion of the condenser, and this has a drawback in that the dimensions of the system must be large. Furthermore, connection lines for a communication between the condenser part and super cooling part of the condenser and the receiver are necessary, which makes the construction of the system complicated and difficult to arrange in a limited space in an automobile.